NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Rams-Packers Recap + 6 Most Improved Players, Part 2 (with Bill Barnwell)

Episode Date: December 20, 2022

Gregg Rosenthal and Bill Barnwell recap the Rams-Packers Monday Night Football matchup. Then, Gregg and Bill go through their 6 most improved players of the 2022 NFL season.NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Maphio keeps. And down he goes. Pressure and Preston Smith gets to Baker Mayfield. Another sack. That were the five sacks recorded by the Green Bay Packers against the Los Angeles Rams in a 24 to 12 Monday night football victory. I'm Greg Rosenthal. I'm joined by Bill Barnwell.

And I'm also joined by our producer. Justin Graver, who decided with that highlight reel to just, like, get creative. That was his artistic rendering of this game, just going with back, sacks on Baker. Do you not like Baker Mayfield, Justin, or something? No, I like Baker Mayfield. I love Baker in Los Angeles. I just felt like I kept looking up the TV, and he was getting sacked, and every week, I feel like it's just, like, a touchdown montage, and I was getting bored of just

always doing a basic touchdown montage, so. I like it. We are 15 weeks in. We're getting art house. getting creative and we're going to talk about the most improved players in the league later in the show bill but i'm so happy to have you here and i'm so happy that you can break down this game with me and i'm expecting like unbelievable analysis out of you tonight you chose the wrong person unfortunately i i was thinking to be honest with you i know i am biased i work for ESPN but

joe buck does a really good job of building up the tension on sacks like i can picture i can picture the pass rush closing in on Baker Mayfield as his voice gets more and more excited. He's really good at that. I didn't realize that until I heard this clip here. So thank you, Justin, for that. And you're hitting on a point I was thinking about tonight, which is Joe Buck does seem to be leaning into making the game as exciting as possible. Maybe it's because Packers, Rams, isn't the big time game that we thought it was going to be

before the season. You know, this is a game network's probably fought over. This was maybe the number one game on the Monday Night football schedule going into the season. Obviously not as much at stake as we expected, not anywhere close. And so, yeah, he's trying to make it feel like a big event. And he did a good job of it. Baker Mayfield's inclusion made it more interesting coming into the game. Did it make it more interesting for you, Bill, during the game?

No, because weirdly, I think Baker Mayfield gets worse as he, learns more about his team and his playbook. You know, I look at what happened in that game last week, the Thursday night game against the Raiders, which was, you know, every week feels like there's either a traumatic thing happening to the Raiders or a glorious season-saving event happening to the Raiders, given their losses now, or their win in their loss in back-to-back weeks in the final moments of games. Oh, it's the whole season, Bill. Someone needs to write a great oral history about this Raiders season. If you go through it one by one, almost every game is completely bananas. But that's beside the point tonight. You're right. Yes.

With the Packers and the Rams, though, it felt like Baker growing more confident in the offense gave him more pause. It felt like he was not as confident ripping the football. And it felt like a lot of this offense was just basically boot and him checking it down to the underneath guy on boot. There's nothing wrong at that. But it's going to be really hard to get the ball down the field for, you know, a 80 or 90-yard touchdown drive doing that over and over again without a sack or a penalty or a turnover. And we saw that happen over and over again to the Rams in this game. Yeah, they could not protect Baker for long.

He held on to the ball. They end up with only 156 yards of offense, 3.6 yards per play. And yet, for stretches, I was like, you know what? He's ripping it okay when he actually sets up and has a target to throw to. They hit on two third and very longs, a third and 15 and a third and 13. Camakers runs, but the Rams field beside the point. Ultimately, this is a game about the Packers. And I was curious coming into it, considering the Packers' remaining schedule, it's challenging.

It's at Miami next week. It's the Lions and the Vikings. We'll talk about their playoff potential in a second. But the reason I was curious about this game was I kind of, have an idea that their offense has mostly solved their issues and it's actually a really good offense right now and i wanted to see if that opinion was confirmed and it was they only had nine drive for me it was confirmed 27 first downs they would have had 31 points if they got another couple yards right at the end uh what do you think about the packers offense right now i think

they're finding solutions that work you know i think they have a little more faith in the rookie wide receivers now, and I think they've gotten better, certainly, with Christian Watson and Rory Dobbs now coming back from his, he had a high ankle sprain, right? I'm not mistaken there in terms of injuries. Yeah, and he was five for 55 tonight. Yep, and he looked good. And Christian Watson, of course, very notably not turn around on what could have been a game ceiling touchdown in the final couple minutes. But, you know, I felt like they were running the ball effectively. I felt like they were, you know, making generally good decisions with the football. The one exception was the interception on what looked to be a bit of miscommunication

between Rogers and Alan Lazard. But this kind of felt like the old Packers, you know, it felt like a game they dominated from start to finish. It felt like a game where they were in control on both sides of the ball. And it felt like, honestly, the only thing missing were the shot plays because there were plenty of times in this game where they went play action. Aaron Rogers took a seven-step drop and he had all the time in the world to throw and nobody was open. I think that's the one notable difference between like your your 2021 Packers and even this impressive, frankly,

version of what we saw from the Packers today. That's a good point. It was 15, 20 degrees out there, which we should mention. I mean, that's exceptionally cold. Can we talk about the all-time reverse jinxing happening during the game when they kept, you kept mentioning that stat about how there only been two kicks of 50 plus yards and in sub-20 degree wider. And Matt Gaye comes out and is hitting a 55-yarder.

And honestly, it would have been good for about 63 or 64. Just an incredible kick. It was an amazing kick and Gay missed that extra point later, his first of the year. Yeah, they also jinxed that the Rams hadn't had a touchdown to a tight end all season. Literally one play before Tyler Higbee wrapped up the scoring with a late third quarter touchdown. So yeah, a lot of jinxes around, but you could see on the kickoffs especially, it's 15, 20 degrees. So when people are getting on Baker Mayfield for a deep shot to Tutu Atwell late in the game hanging up there, I think you have to count the weather here

as a factor. I don't know what it all means, but I know those balls are not the same as they normally would be. It was much colder even than it was in Buffalo the other night. So I think that's That's part of it. And I look at this Packers' offense, and I think, like, the offense could be good enough to win these last three games and see if they can get a tiebreaker. I don't know if the defense is, but I've thought all season that the Packers should be, let's say, right now, like an 8 and 6 team. That's really what they profile more as if you look at their DVOA. Their offense throughout the season has been close to top 10, if not top 10, since week seven, which is. a long sample size. I picked that just because

that's eight games going into tonight. They were eighth in the league. That will only go up. They get first downs. Jones and Dylan are one of the best combos in the league. And Dylan left with a potential concussion, which would be a big injury going into this Miami game. But seeing Dobbs,

Watson, and Lazard on the field all at the same time. It was nice. And I think Rogers is, for the most part, throwing the ball well. And he's playing great against the blitz. They tried to blitz him tonight. He went 10 for 12 for 93 yards against it. He's been great against a blitz all year.

Like, it's a good offense. Like, people have gotten so hard on the Packers because they're not like a top three offense. It's a good offense. Okay. It's a fine offense. I think it's not a problematic offense. But the thing that made this offense work over the past few years is that they never,

ever turned the football over. They had 13 giveaways all season in 2019. They had 11 all year in 2020, 13, all season in 2021. They had two tonight, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, they had two tonight. That's 19 already for this season with three games to go. And I think when you look at what happened with them in the past, Rogers was cooking. He was playing much better.

They had Devante Adams, but they also never turned the ball over. And at least in 2020, they were the best red zone offense. the history of the National Football League. And I think they sort of have to adapt because they play a very slow, methodical style. They don't get a lot of possessions per game by design. They don't play very fast. And I think that might be something that they would consider adjusting, given the style they're playing, given that they do need to get a couple extra drives per game to score points.

But I think at the end of the day, like, they're the part of this team I have more faith in. Oh, so much more. Relative to the defense. Right. Those are all really good points. I like it when Bill just like slaps me down to size. They're good. They're fine.

No, no, you're absolutely right. If you had to put a number on it, ignore the stats, just in a vacuum. Where do you think they would rank in the NFL? We were ranking NFL offenses right this very second with their current personnel. They would make my top 10. They'd probably right at the end, 9th or 10 something. I'd have to go through it. They're like, they're like, just.

12 or 13 for me. I don't think we're far off here. Okay, I agree. And part of it is because their offensive line issues for the most part have been solved. Zach Thomas come in and played well for them. Ruggy player, Yosh Neiman has played well. And they've just figured it

out and they're playing better. And these defenses they're playing down the stretch too aren't great. Miami, Detroit, Minnesota. So I just I look at those that backfield and you could see it tonight. Not that the Rams are an amazing defense, but when Dylan is trucking Taylor Rap on the goal line, and just, I've always loved

Aaron Jones and seeing him in space. There are a lot to deal with, and to me, Christian Watson kind of unlocked this entire offense. Yeah, he had that play at the end where if he had turned around, he would have changed a lot of fantasy competitions, playoff games tonight. They would have scored over 30. They would have hit the over, so a lot of money would have changed hands. But for the most part, to me, he's unlocked this offense.

I don't have any faith, though, that their defense will play well enough to hold those three teams down to possibly win three in a row. Or more importantly, just win on Sunday. They are one of the three Christmas games, Bill Barnwell. They are the first one. Do you believe that their defense could somehow get something going here? I think what has to happen is they have to have a good pass rush. And I know, like, yes, every defense is a good pass rush. This sounds like, it sounds like stupid criticism pretending to be smart criticism or fake insight,

pretending to be insight. But I think they're more dependent on their pass rush than most other teams in the NFL. And that has been inconsistent for them this year. You look at this game here, they were playing a, shall we say, compromised Rams offensive line where pretty much everybody is injured. They lost Brian Allen, their starting center on the second snap, third snap of the game on offense, and Andrew plays him. And Rob Havenstein is having this weird season where he looks like he's never played football before

and is just getting destroyed every single week. He's been terrible. I mean, I don't want to be mean, but he's been one of the worst players in the league over the last half season. And he's the one guy who's supposed to be like the reliable one. He's the one starter they have left. The Packers had, doing math in my head. I think they had five sacks in this game. All you have to do is listen to the highlights, Bill.

That was Justin's, like, thin red line right there. Like, he's going to submit that for a podcast award. It's going to be a con. He did warn me about it. And I was just like, okay, okay, do your thing. Do your thing, Justin. I like you spread in your wings. Yes, so 26 dropbacks for Baker Mayfield, five sacks.

They have not been that good of a pass rush for most. of this season, but I think they have to be that over the final three weeks of the year. And by the way, the dolphins, since Toronto and Armistead got hurt in the first half of that Texans game, two has been getting hit. The Bills actually did the worst job of getting pressure onto a of any team over the past views, but the Texans got five sacks on Tua in the second half of that game where he got benched, the Niners beat up to a, the Chargers had plenty of pressure on Tua. And I think the Packers can do that, but it's not a given or a guarantee in the way it would have been maybe a couple years ago.

Right. And my whole thing, yeah, with this Packers team is they've been a little better, I think, than the record show. They're three and five and one score games. They had a streak of them in the middle of the season where they just kept losing Giants, commanders, lions. And maybe they should probably be seven and seven. they should be eight and six. I'm very intrigued by that game. I also wanted to ask you about Christmas games in general.

Go ahead. What I want to point out is that kind of the cards this house was built on for the Packers over the past their years was winning a lot of those close games. I felt very stupid for the past couple of years because every year I've talked about their record in games decided by seven points or less and said, well, okay, this year, finally, they're going to go back and regress towards the mean and they're going to be a normal team. There's no reason why they're good at these games. And they were good at it in 2019. They were good at it in 2020.

They were good at it in 2021. They were a combined 14 and 6 in those one score games the prior three years. And I bring that up not to take a victory lap. That's not the point. But what I am saying is that. No, it is the point. Let's do it. have a parade for Bill Barnwell right now it'd be nice I would I would take it I would I would

love a marching bands we need more holiday parades it's like I guess we got the rose parade after January 1st but that's like about roses they should have Christmas parades they should have Bill Barnwell is an excellent writer parades like we should nominate one person every year to have a parade thrown in their honor like whoever has the best preseason predictions like if Bill really nails his preseason teams that are going to regress or improve. It makes total sense that you've been on that corner with the Packers. And that's a good point that this is a franchise that probably could use some bad luck after all the good luck they've had. I'm just saying that I think maybe the bar for what you would expect them to be maybe shouldn't be as high as the record was in prior years.

I think they've been a 10 and a half 11 win team the past few years, which is fine. They're still very good. but I don't think they've fallen off quite as much as maybe their record would indicate given their record in prior years. Yeah, and their defense to me all season has been the biggest problems and some of the traditional stats haven't said it

because they're the type of defense that just never gets off the field that gives up these long drives, these soul crushing drives. And they haven't shown enough for me to believe that's going to be any different. Next week against Miami is kind of their final test. But yeah, the guy's getting sacked tonight.

We're like, Nabare, is that how you say his name? He's the fifth round rookie outside linebacker. It's been playing better lately. I just noticed Justin Hollins got a half a sack. He was on the Rams like a week ago. It was a revenge game. It was a revenge game, Greg. I can't believe you did not pay attention to that.

Yeah, they invested so much. And I never like it when teams overinvest in a defense in general. And especially not when you have a quarterback like Aaron Rogers. just think offense is more consistent. And they put so much into the defense this year that it needed to be a top five to 10 defense, and it's been below average. And I don't know, there's something about Aaron Rogers,

I guess even though I don't root for any of his rival teams, and I've always, you know, more or less been neutral on Aaron Rogers or enjoyed the experience. I certainly love watching him throw the ball. Like, I'm still just kind of afraid of him that they will win these three games. There's part of me that is a family. of another team that's like, oh, they're going to win these games.

No one thinks they are. They're going to win them. Great. Could you not see a universe where it's Week 18 and it's the Packers, the team that everyone's kind of sick of that we know is not that good with the quarterback who, you know, has been tiptoeing around retirement for the last three years versus the Lions. Yes. The team, everybody, including the Around the NFL podcast, all love the team that we've adopted that we've put our boots on the ground for for the past year waiting to see them rise up

and now this is their chance to make it to the postseason and Aaron Rogers is going to get in the way? I love it, Bill. Give it to me. I mean, look at Bill Barnwell. How can you not be romantic about football now? Look at Bill Barnwell, loyal to football and loyal to those lions, I mean, even prompting Justin to play our little theme song about the lines.

I love it. Give me that as the week 18 game. That's what I need. I want either that, and I've already looked at this. I'm always obsessed with the Week 18 thing. Yes. There's a lot of games. Yeah, there's a lot of options. Practically every game feels like an option.

I want that are Jets Dolphins as a win-in type of game. Either one of those to me would be delicious, but Packers' Lions feels right. It feels better, and the Packers are going to need to win two straight games to set that up. Yeah, or Titans, Jaguars. Who wants that game? You can't say Jaguars anymore. We've got to just say it's Jaguars.

It's canceled? Jaguars is canceled. I don't know who tweeted about it. I think it was our friend Ben Solac today that was just saying that anyone who says Jaguars on a podcast is immediately suspended. And I thought to myself, yes, I've thought that too. We need to stop these people. Jaguars? Well, the British say Jaguars.

It is London's team. I'm going to go with Jags from now on so I don't mess it up. I don't want Jags Titans. What about Ravens Bengals? this would have been a great top six list i'm not even joking top six potential week 18 games and just talk about that yeah raven's bengals is awesome too i don't think we're going to get a bad one this year the only way it gets bad is basically if the only winning in scenario is one of the southern divisions and jaguars titans would be fine i'm not going to hate that but the nfcc south

would be horrible i love jags titans because you have traver charler lawrence is playing out of his mind right now and you have Derek Henry who has owned the Jaguars for years now even had like a hundred yards in the first half against them last time out and then he got shut down in the second half and I don't know how it happened like I think that could be a real shootout I would be on board for Tennessee Jacksonville in the week 18 game okay I would two in a normal year it's like a seven and a half out of 10 but with these other games that are possible that just seem like the Lions Packers or Bengals, Ravens, or Jets Dolphins, those all seem awesome to me. So that's all.

It's just knowing that there's other good ones out there. You won't be watching Texans Colts. I mean, I'll be watching whatever it is. We've got to talk about it. It's the last game of the year. That will not be a game because that cannot have an elimination scenario at this point. I don't think the Colts can get back in this. Thank the Vikings for that.

Quickly on the Rams before we get to the most improved list. I don't know if there's much to say about it. KMakers had 100. Had 100 yards tonight out of 156. See? Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

No idea. 65 on the ground and 35 through the air. Oh, okay. Yeah, total yards. But 15 touches. I mean, for a team that had 156 to have 100 is impressive. He has shown some explosion after a really lost early part of the season. I think he came back from that injury looking much better.

So to me, the rest of their season is just seeing who among these players can, can matter for next year, including Baker as a potential backup, including Acres in where he fits in guys like Michael Hoyt, who's really looked great as an edge rusher. So that's a nice find some of the guys in their secondary, and that's about it. They just need to find some players. Guys like Leonard Floyd, actually, who they'll be making a decision on whether they want to keep him, like they can save $15 million against the cap and they're going to need money. He's been playing great lately, so he might be auditioning for another team.

That's sort of all that matters for the RAM season at this point. Yeah, I think sort of cycling through some of their younger players as well. Like, you know, like the guys in the secondary, your Nick Scotch or Taylor Rapps, who are coming up either towards the end of their rookie deals or they're in positions where, you know, they're not making a lot of money and you can replace them? Maybe you draft a guy to replace them. And it's, you know, can you trust those guys to be a part of a championship caliber defense? Scott was last year.

Rapp really was not a focal point on that defense. I think Raps a free agent. And I would guess he'll. be gone just because I would imagine as well yeah and they have they have other good players you're right in the in the secondary or at least that they want to see like like Kobe durant and yeah but but acres is a good example I mean he was almost out of the organization if anybody had offered them a swap of late round picks I think he'd be on a different team right now but he looks the best he's looked since his Achilles injury he was terrible in the postseason almost cost the ramps their

Super Bowl given how bad he played uh in the final two rounds of the the play the play else last year. But, you know, obviously impressive, he came back and looks much better now, thankfully. And I think, you know, for a offense that could really use a relatively cheap running back to be, you know, the focal point of their running game, Kempakers looks like maybe he can be that guy if he plays this way over the rest of the season. Right. Because something tells me they're going to be spending money on offensive linemen. And I would hope so, but potentially quarterback and defensive tackles. We don't know who's going to be back for the Rams. That's for the offseason. Let's talk about a list that I'm excited about. I'm so excited about it, Bill,

that I'm going to give you the first draft. It's our most improved players. And if you're a regular listener of the Monday Night Football podcast, you might think to yourself. Wait, didn't Greg already do most improved players? Yeah, I did. I just went third person, too. And I didn't really realize it until I was writing down Christian Darrasaw, like a few hours, before the show. And it's like, this seems familiar. But it's the end of the season. And I think most improved player should be an award that is actually given by the NFL

because it makes more sense to me than comeback players. So I think it's good to be circling back right now. And at least the players I'm throwing out would be legit candidates for an actual most improved player award. So this is more of the end of the season. Bill, you go first. Wait, hold on. How long ago did you do this previously?

I don't want to, I thought about not. bringing this up because how many people would really notice not that many you're an honest man but i just thought it was funny because i was like deris uh wait this what have i talked about christian there was some before this this feels familiar this is when you know you've done too many shows i think it was like six weeks ago but i'm doing different players bill i want to hear what you think think about do you remember who you did it with in the past yeah but this is this is all embarrassing it was charles macdonald okay i respect Charles's opinion. So if it was someone I did not respect, I'd say there's plenty of reasons to do it.

Different. I mean, this is such a great award potential. We could do it every week. Let's just talk about improved players. What's more human than trying to improve in recognizing that in the holiday season bill? Being critical is apparently nothing we do that pretty often too. So that's what it's nice to be for sure. Give me your first pick. Give me your first pick. Okay. One more thing before I start though. Okay. I just want to put it out there. I mentioned this before. we started taping last time i came on the show we had another list where you both came up with like two or three of the same things yeah the over under for the number of players we're going to name that are identical to me is two and a half whoa i thought we said it at one and a half and you

were taking me over before the show yes but you just gave away a free number uh okay i'm i'm not i mean my issue is a little different like i just gave away derisaw is not can't be on my list because it was on it last time. So it's a slightly different list. But sure, I'll go with that. We're getting the most improved B team here. Okay. Number one for me, a guy who was a question to even be starting this year.

And a player on America's team, the Detroit Lions, is Jeff Akuta, a player who was kind of lost under Matt Patricia, was a mess as a rookie. Tori's Achilles was a question whether he was ever going to start. I think Amani over Wariye was looking really good last year. Like he was maybe going to play ahead of Okuda. Okuda wins the job in camp, and he's been really good. You know, I think the Lions defense, admittedly, has been pretty iffy. I don't think Okuda's been a superstar necessarily, but he's had a lot of tough assignments. And I think he's battles really well.

I did a really good job that one week against Justin Jefferson, not so much in the rematch, I guess. But, you know, when he's been healthy, he's missed a couple weeks. But when he's been healthy, I think he's been an above average starting. cornerback. And I think that's the perfect timing for that for the Lions given how little they got from him over his first couple seasons in the league. So Akuta, number one on my list. I love that. And I love that we're doing this list again because it just gives us a chance to talk about players I never do at length on this podcast. I think he's a perfect pick because of where he was in his career. And also as a representative of the Lions defense, which is the most improved defense

throughout the course of the season. Since their by week, they're 13th in DVOA. I mean, that's average. I mean, that's better than average. And I hate to be cliche, but Okuda is the perfect example of why I like watching the Lions defense. They just fly around the field, and that's the cliche. But they play with such great energy. And Akuta's physical.

They give him the toughest assignments. Some weeks it goes okay. You're well in coverage. Some weeks it doesn't. But he's a great tackler, and he's great in run defense, and he makes plays outside of just being in coverage. And I think that's typical of this team of Rodrigo and the rest of them. So I love Okuda as the first pick.

Yeah, 85.6 pass-ser rating aloud per fruitful reference, which checks out to me. And cornerback stats are always a little iffy. But I think, you know, again, not a superstar. There are guys with better numbers. But I think a solid corner on a team that needs solid players on the defensive side of them. Well, and I hate, you never want to see top five picks wash out. And it's always a good reminder to give them time and see what happens. But that's especially to our cornerback.

Cornerback is so unpredictable that sometimes guys who don't seem like they're going to make it on their first contract have great careers. I'm going with a guy that was at a totally different position. There's no way you wrote him down, Bill Barnwell. I'm taking Joanne Johnson with my pick. Joanne Johnson was a wide receiver. I know. I was taking Joanne Johnson in best ball drafts last year thinking he might be the new Marquise Colston. Okay.

So I pick him because none of these wide receivers. to tight ends? I shouldn't say none. It's pretty rare that it works out. And so Sean Payton moved him to tight end. And I didn't see it. He still looked like a, like it was too slow to even play tight end when he was playing wide receiver.

But he really has improved. I watched enough of the Saints in the preseason and the regular season when he was on the field the last couple of years to see what he's doing this year that he's worked on his game. And he's explosive. He has great hands. He's obviously good in the red zone. And it's a little crazy that he scored seven touchdowns.

But he has 35 catches for 416 yards. And he's reliable. Like they've found something in him and Rashid Shahid. The Saints have had the most bizarre season ever. But Joanne Johnson's a real player. Juan Johnson is going to get a nice second contract as a tight end. And he's not even getting to the second contract, get only a third year player.

And so I love seeing guys like that who just, you had no thought would be a quality starter become on. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think, you know, the numbers don't sound like they're blowing you away with, you know, 35 for 4, 16, and 7. But that's the seventh best fantasy performance from any tight-in in football this year. And it's getting better every week. Like, you have watched the last five or six weeks. It's just like the difficulty of the catches that he makes. Like, that's a skill set that should travel. All right, what's your next pick? My next pick is I'll give you one that I think was probably on most people's lists. And that's Talanoa Hufanga. the Niners' safety, where I just think, not perfect, there's still weeks where people take advantage of him here and there, but such a playmaker, he's made them so much better, you know,

he can play different spots on the defense and I think play them at a high level. I think he's physical. I think he is, you know, kind of has that knack of being in the right place at the right time. That's a skill, even if it might not necessarily look like a skill, you know, on a given play. But I think that Niners' defense, the secondary was the big question mark for them heading into the year, even after adding Chervarius Ward. And I think Kufanga's year-to-year growth was significant enough that he's the reason to me why they're the best defense in football and not the fifth or sixth or seventh or eighth best defense in football. Wow. That's high praise. And I agree, certainly that he deserves to be on this list.

I don't know if he's the difference, but he is a great example of a coach. and a coaching staff using a guy's instinctive skill set to their full advantage. And he's a guy that when he was popping in the preseason, most people probably looked him up and thought like, oh, is he a rookie? And no, he's not a rookie. He just really came out of nowhere. I love that.

I'm going to pick a player. Not on your list, though. Not on my list. You're not getting your over, over one and a half. Unless you have this man. And I could choose between two big name quarterbacks, okay? and I'm going to take Tua Tunga Vyloa in Most Improved. And instead of Trevor Lawrence, because Trevor is a rookie quarterback.

We know the situation there, and he's improved unbelievably during the season. We talked enough about chart. To me, Tua is a better choice because he had already played so much in the NFL, and we'd seen him over the last two years. And before Dolphins fans get in their feelings, I was higher on Tua in general the last two years, than consensus, I would say, because I thought what he showed in those two years

was a skill set that was better or almost elite in some areas than NFL starters. And that was in quick game. And that was in, you know, the way he handles the ball, but also quick accuracy. And like, that's a skill set that travels. We've seen enough quarterbacks that never have that and that he was almost at an elite level.

of that right off the bat to like, okay, you can work with this. Hopefully you can build out different parts of his game and you can build around him and then he'll improve more. So I already sort of saw him that he was going to be an Alex Smith type. And I don't think that's a derogatory. And I thought that was like the middle point of how his career would go. And I think you look at this season and you want to just give all the credit to Tyree Kill and Jalen Waddle and Mike McDaniel. And I think that's unfair because I think the timing that he shows on the deep throws and the confidence that he plays with, a lot of it is just confidence. And maybe that comes from coaching and how he's been talked up and everything that he's worked on.

But he didn't show those things necessarily in his first two years. And so, yeah, it's the situation improving for him. But I think he's legitimately improved. And even if his arm isn't big, can it be big enough to be extremely? extremely efficient throwing deep like Drew Brees was throughout his career. I think he has a chance to do that. I don't think he's all the way there yet. I don't think he's an MVP candidate, and I never quite saw he was there.

But I think there's a middle ground here where, like, you can recognize he has improved quite a great deal. And you've got to be excited if you're a Dolphins fan that he can improve more. For sure. And I think the infrastructure of that offense has opened up to the point where he can kind of show what he can do in a way that he was not able to, the first. two years in Miami. I mean, that offense, yes, he is a very accurate pastor in the short and intermediate range. He's good throwing over the middle of the field. He's good on RPO's with making smart decisions and getting the ball out fast and not just one hopping the ball or putting a two lower too high and we're putting it in the right spot for a guy to create yards

after the catch because he's hitting them in stride. And we've seen more of that this year. But we know from his days in Alabama, he can throw deep. It's not like he's Chad Pennington, you know, where he just can't deliver a deep pass. I mean, even Chad Pettington, by the way, like, we remember the last few years of his career, but there was a period early in his career where he was like a top five quarterback. Oh, sure. And I think with Tua, you know, like, it wasn't that he was not physically able to do it last year, or was that he was physically not able to do it while staying upright because it did not have

the pass protection to pull that off. And I think that is the difference for me this year, is that the past protection has been better. and that means his confidence is growing it means he has more faith in his offensive line especially before this recent stretch where he struggled and the line has been not doing as good of a job but I think we've been able to see what he can do

because of the context around him it's not as if he was not able to do that in years past it was just that he did not have the context around him to be able to show that off so I and a little more like the past protection also allows him to do a little more playmaking which I'm not saying he's elite at or even above average but he's shown it and that's the next step for him that when he does have extra time and he's getting to his third or four three and he just

has to go make a play he's done that a bit this year he's done that and it's encouraging to see that because you didn't see that in the first couple of years so if there was an actual award he would be a pretty strong candidate to win it because he would get a lot of love all right we each have one more pick you're not getting you're over you're not you're not would you say Jalen Hertz has improved more than to a tangle by because when you when you said two quarterbacks that's that's who I assumed I was thinking Trevor oh you're right shoot Jalen hurts I don't know why I guess sort of I'm thinking about him as an MVP and

and that I like had the Eagles in the Super Bowl before the season but yeah of course he's improved an incredible great yeah that's right on the way given it to myself is that you're not no it's not Jalen Hertz okay you want Do you want offensive lineman or a skill position player? Let's just give me both and we'll make it an extra. Okay. Just talk about one, though. Talk about one.

Mike Anewu, on Wayneu, is the offensive line. No, let's go skill position player. They moved him around and now we set in one spot playing very well. Uncle Donovan People's Jones. Oh, that's a good one. A wide receiver who I did not have high hopes for, kind of figured, okay, he's going to be the second or third guy. Maybe Anthony Schwartz moves past him in Cleveland. since week four, he's averaging just under two yards per route run.

He's ahead of DJ Moore, ahead of Devonte Smith, ahead of Keenan Allen, Debo, Samuel, Brandon Ayuk. I mean, all of these guys who you think of as superstars, and I think Jacoby percent has played well, certainly, but it's not like Jacoby percent is a superstar quarterback. He could be on most improved. He was on my long list. He was good. I didn't know there was a long list. I mean, I made the long list privately. He made like nine, yeah.

He's on the list. Nice. But Donovan People's Jones. a legit number two NFL whiteout and I did not see him at that level before this year and I think he's still pretty young of course they're getting an upgraded quarterback with Deshawn Watson granted he has not looked very good to start this year but hopefully next year he'll be better and I think he can be like a legit starting NFL wide receiver and that's pretty valuable for a mid-round pick yeah I did not see that coming but he has a good feel for spacing and making big plays and you're

You've seen it in the return game a little bit, too, with that touchdown. They found something there. Receivers are so valuable these days. Yep. I almost feel like you just got to take as many as you can in the draft. It's kind of like the old quarterback thing that I used to think take one every year. Receivers now you should take one or two every year. I think the Packers are very happy with their second and fourth round pick.

I'll wrap it up with Jalen Phillips. I'm going double on the Dolphins. Greg, Greg, he was on the list. He was number six on my list. I mean, how do I? You didn't say him, though. You didn't say his name. I didn't.

Well, either way, you only got one. That's under one and a half. That's true. That's a victory. Jalen Phillips and Josh Diamond were my two other guys. You mentioned Josh Diamond earlier in the show. That doesn't count. The parade is mine.

Jalen Phillips was a guy last year who got all these sacks and all the, you know, supposedly smart people would just noted like, well, he didn't actually have that many pressures. I mean, me, I'm putting myself in that game. It's like, he didn't really have that many pressures and he would get washed away in the running game. And it's like, that's all fine. Now you look back at it that he has 60 pressures on this season is playing way more because they trust him in run defense

and has been playing good run defense and just has instincts. And then you look back at last year and you think, like, maybe he just has good instincts for finishing plays, which is valuable. Maybe that doesn't always translate, but the fact that he went from year one, okay, he just got the sacks to year two, he's doing it all, and he's getting the sacks, it is a great sign because this year it's not luck, but he certainly has a great nose for getting around tackles.

He's one of those guys, and I love passers rushers like this that just don't get touched by the offensive linemen barely sometimes, and those are the types of guys I want. Yeah, and I mean, like Jail and Phillips had such a weird, you know, disrupted career in college. He had to retire. He got hit by a car. I mean, he really came back and sort of just, you know, kind of came out of that one year in Miami to play at a high level and get to the Dolphins.

So it would make sense that he would improve more than the typical player from year one to year two. It would make sense that he's a work in progress. So I'm not surprised he's made that growth. I think he has that kind of upside. And we're seeing him deliver that more and more. I mean, there are plays in games when you watch the Dolphins where he is totally unblockable, and he looks like the best player on the field. The last two weeks, I mean, I'm definitely being a little recent to bias here.

He's at a great season overall, but the last two weeks, he's taking it to another level. And you're right, but the pre-draft thing was like he could be a little bit of a project, but the highest upside, and that has proven to be right. You've got the highest upside, Bill. You deserve all the parades. You wrote a great article on ESPN.com. today about the quarterback situations. I'm jealous all the different potential teams that could be changing quarterbacks.

No, it's a really good analysis. Everyone should check it out on ESPN Plus. And no, I'm just jealous because that's the type of thing. You know, I wish I had written. But Bill Barn will read it. Nothing stopping you. I'm not going to sue you if you write about quarterbacks and where they might go. It's not my idea.

That's true. I'll save it for January. And then it'll be like in a slightly different form, but it's probably coming, maybe February even. Just like underrated, just like the most improved players. You wait six weeks. The statute of limitations runs out. That's the real answer, Bill. And it sounds like I'm a blowhard, but that's what's getting in the way all these podcasts that I'm doing so many.

I don't even know that we already did most improved. It's too many. That's when you know you've done too many. It's a problem. I think this is like a moment here, you know, where we realize we have a problem. Oh, you know what, Greg? You have made a career out of your addiction, and that's what matters. That's a goal for everyone.

4-20, bros. That was a sound job. Thank you, Bill Barnwell, for coming on late night on the East Coast for Rams Packers and all the most improved. And have a great Christmas, Bill. Thanks for joining me. Thank you, sir. Have great holidays. All right.

for Bill Barnwell, for Justin Graver. We'll be back on Tuesday. We have Colleen Wolf in the studio. Connor Orr is going to join the show. Talk favorite Hallmark Christmas movie. He's going to be good. He'd the call. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you.

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Lenovo, Lenovo. Hey everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6th, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team-building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday.

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